Aug 21 2008
worst bits of both
Those words come from a conservative guy talking to a transvestite who somehow feels comfortable with his presence. Unfortunately for this guy who has a problem with a shoe factory he newly-manned when his father unexpectedly died, he isn’t comfortable looking at a man wearing a dress. “You look like the worst bits of both,” he has said.This is one particular scene in the movie Kinky Boots, directed by Geoff Dane and written by Julian Jarrold, where it steered me the most. Though the guy named Charlie Price can be considered an enlightened man in the land of Northampton, he still falls under the prejudices of other people’s scrutiny and idealisms when he and Lola the drag queen are together in the restaurant. Issues on sexuality often heats up even the most apathetic citizen that it is the whole debate becomes senseless and even discriminatory.
As for the aspects of pop culture found in this movie, the one that surfaced perceptibly is the fashion aspect since the whole film involves shoes, good looks, and runways. The film effectively covers this matter which almost everyone in the world has been involved with. From the proper shoe size to the debatable concern of who must wear this and that, Kinky Boots somehow breaks the mold of gender inequity in a less declarative and demanding way. Like Lola, or otherwise known as Simon, this cross-dresser who designed the “transvestite boots” for a factory that manufactures the common products such as the Oxfords and the school shoes is like a movement for a possible change, a sure way of ensuring equilibrium that homosexuals have their own share of the pie present in the market.
On the other hand, this act can be held accountable as a disadvantage since the majority is alien with this idea. Who would’ve thought that this particular place makes boots for gays? Therefore this is one thing that’s obviously unpopular either in this generation or on the next few years to come. Let’s face it, though more and more people have fought for the reshaping of the biased mentality, we cannot still get away from labels, taunts, and misconceptions that defeats the protests of those “radical” thinkers. Boots are good for females, better for female dancers, but awfully bad for drag queens—this is the code one may get in this film. For me, fashion adapts to different views and concepts so basically it shouldn’t follow a direct rule.
The movie has the makings of a classic, though. Even if it deals with issues about gender, fashion dichotomization, and societal biases, this movie can stand the tests of time for its focus on being uncategorized and fearless. These themes are universal and the insights never change even after countless of viewings. Just like Steven Spielberg’s Extraterrestrial, it still remains watchable until now for its charming nature, its youthful burst of energy found in the child protagonist, and the theme of reception and release. Aside from being a favorite, this sci-fi movie makes anyone relate to the child because personal experience usually makes movies click. In the film Kinky Boots, no one can really get away from it without having a connection to one of the wide variety of characters. Popular culture is unquestionably transitory, it lives on the various changes of things, but through this series of modification it eliminates the borderlines, the limiting characteristic of time. And since this movie, Kinky Boots, offers illumination of knowledge that transcends any period, it is a classic no egotistic scholar of the highest order could ever disagree.
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